The Song of the Sparrowhawk
Disclaimer: I don't own A Wizard of Earthsea, which this is about, I own nothing! Nothing!
Note: This is essentially a summary of the story in the form of a lay. It's the one she's always talking about people singing about him, The Song of the Sparrowhawk
He grew up on the mountainside
And used his powers first to hide
To hide from hungry, scything blades
He summoned mist and fog as aides
The man who calmed the trembling ground
Taught him of power'n balance bound
But Sparrowhawk the proud and reckless
Bowed unto the guiséd temptress
Called a shadow from darkness' realm
From 'hind the door of planks of elm
An echo of what was to come
Ere Sparrowhawk's small life was done
The great mage who did name the boy saw might yet also restlessness
Gave him a choice, and thus he chose the quickest way he might impress
He went to learn among the wise and study from their books of lore
So he might learn of sorcery and ancient things from days of yore
And so he learned of things named true
Later sleeping among the dew
A follower fell'n by his side
True heart, but little glorified
Temptation came midst party lights
For the drive of rival ambition bites
Sorcerer foe whom he did hate
Dared him to open forbidden gates
And so he called the Dead by name
And thus she came
But a shadow glimpséd long ago
Darkened the light of the sorcerous glow
And on the other world's threshold
The students watched the battle unfold
It seemed the Sparrowhawk would lose
Until a light came to defy
The shadow, but in doing so
The mage himself began to die
With faithful crow flying ahead
By morning the wizard was dead
Still Sparrowhawk struggled to heal
Because of guilt that he did feel
Yet he grew strong
And the years grew long
His student life came to an end
When he sailed for to defend
The people of the Western Sea
From dragons: three by three
With its true name he bound the beast
And so it never journeyed east
To trouble the unhappy world
With sails furled
The Sparrowhawk, he fled him too
Rowing with an unfriendly crew
In a barren landscape of snow
And shadow pursued blow by blow
He came to a place he soon called home
But the tempting of night-black stone
Forced him and a lady to flee the place
A desperate race
She lost, and he went home
In falcon form winged over foam
Until the hunted became hunter
And misty world became a blur
Defeated by his very own trick
Crawled across shores, weary and sick
He found refuge with two castaways
Who feared him e'en in his fevered days
A weathered woman once a girl
A princess with a dress of pearl
Then he left a spring running clear
To sail onwards towards his fear
One day he came unto that place
Stayed with a friend who gave him grace
To stay a while
With a Minnows smile
And then he and his loyal friend
Sailed on to journeys end
Until the Seas turned into dust
The Sparrowhawk did what he must
Until upon the shadow gained
Found it was his own and truly named
With his own name and the other part
Close to his heart
He and his Death were one
And now it was done
His staff turned black
And they sailed back
Leaving a story and his fame
Left to the wind on that foreign shore
He asked no more
But his name
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